Shameless Plug

Wanted: A Town Willing to Host a Dump for U.S. Nuclear Waste Published on December 01, 2021 at 12:30PM The Biden administration is looking for communities willing to serve as temporary homes for tens of thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste currently stranded at power plants around the country. Bloomberg reports: The Energy Department filed (PDF) a public notice Tuesday that it is restarting the process for finding a voluntary host for spent nuclear fuel until a permanent location is identified. "Hearing from and then working with communities interested in hosting one of these facilities is the best way to finally solve the nation's spent nuclear fuel management issues," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. The agency, in its notice, requested input on how to proceed with a "consent-based" process for a federal nuclear storage facility, including what benefits could entice local and state governments and how to address potential impedime...

Princeton Team Disables Long-Targeted Gene Behind Spread of Major Cancers Published on December 01, 2021 at 09:00AM An anonymous reader writes: The mysterious ways cancer spreads through the body, a process known as metastasis, is what can make it such a difficult enemy to keep at bay. Researchers at Princeton University working in this area have been tugging at a particular thread for more than 15 years, focusing on a single gene central to the ability of most major cancers to metastasize. They've now discovered what they describe as a "silver bullet" in the form of a compound that can disable this gene in mice and human tissue, with clinical trials possibly not too far away. This discovery has its roots in 2004 research in which Princeton scientists identified a gene implicated in metastatic breast cancer, called metadherin, or MTDH. A 2009 paper by cancer biologist Yibin Kang then showed the gene was amplified and produced abnormally high levels of MTDH proteins in a...

Over 300,000 Android Users Have Downloaded These Banking Trojan Malware Apps, Say Security Researchers Published on December 01, 2021 at 07:40AM Over 300,000 Android smartphone users have downloaded what turned out to be banking trojans after falling victim to malware that has bypassed detection by the Google Play app store. ZDNet reports: Detailed by cybersecurity researchers at ThreatFabric, the four different forms of malware are delivered to victims via malicious versions of commonly downloaded applications, including document scanners, QR code readers, fitness monitors and cryptocurrency apps. The apps often come with the functions that are advertised in order to avoid users getting suspicious. In each case, the malicious intent of the app is hidden and the process of delivering the malware only begins once the app has been installed, enabling them to bypass Play Store detections. The most prolific of the four malware families is Anatsa, which has been installed by over 200,000 ...

Browser Extension Shows How Many Brands On Amazon Are Actually Just Amazon Published on December 01, 2021 at 07:00AM A new browser extension promises to show you which products in your Amazon search results are sold by brands that are either owned by or are exclusive to Amazon, giving you a better idea of who's selling what you're buying. The Verge reports: It's called Amazon Brand Detector, and it uses a list of Amazon brands created by The Markup, along with filters and other techniques (detailed here) to detect and highlight products that are a part of Amazon's Our Brands program. The Markup created this extension after its investigation into how Amazon ranks its in-house brands in search results and says the tool (available for Chrome-like browsers and Firefox) is designed to make searches more transparent. When we tested it, it obviously highlighted Amazon Basics and Essentials products, but it also drew attention to results that were otherwise indistinguishable ...

'Massive' Startup Wants To Rent Your Spare Compute Power To Pay For Apps Published on December 01, 2021 at 06:20AM What if users could pay for apps or services not with money or attention, but with their spare compute power? A startup called "Massive" is working to take this concept "into the modern world as an alternative to charging users or pounding them with advertisements to generate revenue," writes TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm. From the report: Massive announced an $11 million round this morning, led by Point72 Ventures with participation from crypto-themed entities, including CoinShares Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. Several angels also participated in the funding event. The model is interesting, and Massive's funding round is an indication that it has found some market traction. So, we get the company on the horn to learn more. Massive co-founder and CEO Jason Grad described the startup's work as something akin to an Airbnb or Turo for u...

The Virtual Phone Farms Scammers Use To Set Up Fake Accounts Published on December 01, 2021 at 05:40AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: When a scammer wants to set up an account on Amazon, Discord, or a spread of other online services, sometimes a thing that stands in their way is SMS verification. The site will require them to enter a phone number to receive a text message which they'll then need to input back into the site. Sites often do this to prevent people from making fraudulent accounts in bulk. But fraudsters can turn to large scale, automated services to lease them phone numbers for less than a cent. One of those is 5SIM, a website that members of the video game cheating community mention as a way to fulfill the request for SMS verification. Various YouTube videos uploaded by the company explain how people can use its service explicitly for getting through the SMS verification stage of various sites. The videos include instructions specifically on P...

Fox News Breaking News Alert CNN suspends Chris Cuomo indefinitely 11/30/21 3:40 PM

Microsoft Adds Buy Now, Pay Later Financing Option To Edge -- And Everyone Hates It Published on December 01, 2021 at 05:00AM Microsoft has decided to add "Buy Now, Pay Later" financing options to its Edge browser in the U.S. -- and the overwhelming response has been negative. The Register reports: The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) option pops up at the browser level (rather than on checkout at an ecommerce site) and permits users to split any purchase between $35 and $1,000 made via Edge into four instalments spread over six weeks. The system is powered by Zip, previously Quadpay, and offers a Chrome extension for users who want to split their payments (interest-free if you make the payments on time, although Zip charges $1 per installment). Microsoft has now bundled the platform into Edge. Feedback could charitably be described as negative so far, as demonstrated by the tags assigned to the post on Microsoft's Tech Community site. Comments (numbering 119 at time of writing...

Cyber Monday Online Sales Fall For the First Time Ever Published on December 01, 2021 at 04:20AM Consumers logged online Monday and spent $10.7 billion, marking a 1.4% decrease from year-ago levels, according to data released Tuesday by Adobe Analytics. This year's tally marks the first time that Adobe has tracked a slowdown in spending on major shopping days. CNBC reports: Despite the slowdown, Adobe expects the entire holiday season will see record-breaking e-commerce activity, as shoppers spread out their dollars over more days. So far, from Nov. 1 through Cyber Monday, consumers in the United States have spent $109.8 billion online, which is up 11.9% year over year, Adobe said. And on 22 of those days, consumers purchased more than $3 billion worth of goods, another new milestone, it said. Adobe anticipates digital sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 will hit $207 billion, which would represent record gains of 10%. Last Cyber Monday, retailers rang up $10.8 billion in sales on the w...

FBI Document Shows What Data Can Be Obtained From Encrypted Messaging Apps Published on December 01, 2021 at 03:40AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Record: A recently discovered FBI training document shows that US law enforcement can gain limited access to the content of encrypted messages from secure messaging services like iMessage, Line, and WhatsApp, but not to messages sent via Signal, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WeChat, or Wickr. The document, obtained earlier this month following a FOIA request filed by Property of the People, a US nonprofit dedicated to government transparency, appears to contain training advice for what kind of data agents can obtain from the operators of encrypted messaging services and the legal processes they have to go through. Dated to January 7, 2021, the document doesn't include any new information but does a good job at providing an up-to-date summary of what type of information the FBI can currently obtain from each of the listed ser...

SpaceX's Starlink Is Testing Internet Service for Aircraft Published on December 01, 2021 at 03:00AM SpaceX's Starlink unit is testing its space-based internet service with several aircraft and wants to offer in-flight connection to airlines "as soon as possible," a company vice president said. From a report: Starlink is in talks with several airlines about offering in-flight broadband connections, Jonathan Hofeller, vice president of commercial sales, said Tuesday on a panel at the Airline Passenger Experience Association gathering in Long Beach, California. That would put the company in direct competition with Viasat, Intelsat SA, Telesat and others. Starlink is producing six satellites a week at its assembly site near Seattle, Hofeller said. It is also moving to a more sophisticated version. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA Postpones Spacewalk Citing 'Debris Notification' for ISS Published on December 01, 2021 at 02:25AM Nasa has postponed a planned spacewalk outside the International Space Station due to flying "debris," two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in a missile test that created clouds of zooming shrapnel in orbit. From a report: Washington's space agency did not mention the Russian test in its announcement, but a Nasa official had warned a day earlier of a slightly elevated risk to astronauts due to the 14 November incident. The strike generated thousands of pieces of "space junk" that are now hurling around the Earth at about 17,000 mph (27,400km/h) -- much faster than the speed of a bullet. At that velocity, even tiny flecks of paint can damage spacecraft, with spacesuits even more vulnerable. On Tuesday, about five hours before the astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron were due to venture outside the space station, Nasa said o...

Biden Administration Makes First Move on Data Privacy Published on December 01, 2021 at 01:44AM The Biden administration is launching its first big effort on privacy policy by looking at how data privacy issues affect civil rights. From a report: The National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), the telecom unit of the Commerce Department, plans to hold "listening sessions" and seek comment on the intersection of privacy, equity and civil rights, according to an agency notice. NTIA intends to develop a report on the "ways in which commercial data flows of personal information can lead to disparate impact and outcomes for marginalized or disadvantaged communities." The agency noted that data collection can lead to harm through discriminatory targeted advertising or via software that uses race as a factor in predicting academic success, as detailed by a report in The Markup. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Barbados, Formally Casting Off the Queen, Becomes a Republic Published on December 01, 2021 at 12:55AM In the early hours of Tuesday, at a ceremony attended by hundreds of masked officials, a prince and at least one pop star, the Caribbean island of Barbados became a republic, cutting ties with Queen Elizabeth II and casting off the last major vestige of its colonial past. The New York Times: The nation swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, a former governor general who had been appointed by the queen. A 21-gun salute rang out as the national anthem played. The red, yellow and navy blue royal flag was lowered -- exactly 55 years after the country gained independence from Britain. "Today, debate and discourse have become action," Ms. Mason, 72, told the onlookers gathered in the capital, Bridgetown. "Today, we set our compass to a new direction." Ms. Mason received a majority vote in Parliament in October to take on the role. In a speech afterward, Prime Mini...

Amazon Launches Preview of New 'AWS Private 5G' Managed Service Published on December 01, 2021 at 12:26AM At Amazon's AWS re:Invent conference this morning, the company announced the preview of "AWS Private 5G," which is a new service that aims to make it easy to deploy and manage your own private global network. From a report: The launch is meant to address the challenges companies are facing with leveraging 5G. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky said that with AWS Private 5G, you can set up and scale a private mobile network in days instead of months. "You get all the goodness of mobile technology without the pain of long planning cycles, complex integrations and the high upfront costs," Selipsky stated during the company's keynote. "You tell us where you want to build your network and specify the network capacity. We ship you all the required hardware, the software and the SIM cards." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Facebook's David Marcus, Creator of Embattled Diem Project, To Leave Company Published on November 30, 2021 at 11:23PM David Marcus, one of the top executives at Meta Platforms and the co-creator of the yet-to-be-launched Diem digital currency, is leaving the company after seven years to pursue other projects. From a report: Marcus, who joined the Facebook parent company in 2014 from PayPal Holdings, ran the Messenger service for years before moving over to form the company's blockchain division in 2018. He spent the last few years building Novi, the company's digital wallet that launched in October, and co-founded Diem, a digital currency formerly known as Libra that was intended as a way for people to send money cross-border. Getting Diem off the ground has proven to be a struggle for Meta and Marcus. Since the project was unveiled in 2019 -- with great fanfare and dozens of partners -- the currency's debut has been delayed and its original ambitions have been scale...

Twitter Expands Safety Policy, Bans Posting Images of People Without Their Consent Published on November 30, 2021 at 11:05PM Twitter updated its private information safety policy this morning to ban sharing images or videos of private individuals without their consent. From a report: The platform already banned users from sharing others' personal information without permission, like their address or location, identity documents, non-public contact information, financial information or medical data. But this update makes these anti-harassment and anti-doxxing policies more robust. This doesn't mean that Twitter will require consent from all individuals in a photo or video before its posted. But if a person depicted wants the media taken down, Twitter will take it down. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Moderna CEO Says Vaccines Likely Less Effective Against Omicron Published on November 30, 2021 at 10:19PM The head of drugmaker Moderna said COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been previously, sparking fresh worry in financial markets about the trajectory of the pandemic. From a report: "There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same levelâ... we had with Delta," Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview. "I think it's going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I've talked toâ.â.â. are like 'this is not going to be good.'" Vaccine resistance could lead to more sickness and hospitalisations and prolong the pandemic, and his comments triggered selling in growth-exposed assets like oil, stocks and the Australian dollar. Bancel added that the h...

Razer's Qualcomm-powered Handheld Console Leaks Published on November 30, 2021 at 09:50PM Qualcomm appears to be collaborating with Razer on a new gaming handheld developer kit built around its upcoming Snapdragon G3X processor. From a report: Leaked slides published by VideoCardz call the device a "Snapdragon G3X Handheld Developer Kit," suggesting it will primarily be aimed at software developers and manufacturers to help them build their own software and hardware powered by Qualcomm's mobile gaming technology. Alongside it, VideoCardz has also obtained slides detailing Qualcomm's next flagship smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The name shows off Qualcomm's new branding for its mobile chips announced last month. The processor will reportedly be manufactured using a 4nm process, with a CPU that's 20 percent faster and 30 percent more power efficient, and a GPU that's 30 percent faster and 25 percent more power efficient than previous gen...

UK Regulators Order Facebook-owner Meta To Sell Giphy Published on November 30, 2021 at 08:54PM Regulators in the U.K. on Tuesday said they have directed Facebook parent company Meta to sell Giphy after finding "the takeover could reduce competition between social media platforms and increase Facebook's already significant market power." From a report: Facebook agreed to buy Giphy in May of last year for an estimated price of $400 million. The deal almost immediately invited antitrust scrutiny, given the increased attention to Facebook's growing market power. In a statement, the U.K.'s competition and markets authority concluded that the deal would be anticompetitive because Facebook could theoretically increase market power by "denying or limiting other platformsâ(TM) access to Giphy GIFs," or "changing the terms of access," to its GIFs for competitive sites. Regulators also determined that the deal was uncompetitive because it shut down Gip...

Finnish Researchers Say Their First Quantum Computer Is Up and Running Published on November 30, 2021 at 08:29PM Finland's first quantum computer was commissioned at a research center near the capital Helsinki, where scientists will use it to study next-generation computing power. From a report: The 5 quantum-bit computer was developed "to learn how to build a quantum computer, how to program one and how to operate one in the future," Pekka Pursula, research manager at the VTT Technical Research Centre, said by phone on Tuesday. The machine was the joint work of VTT and quantum computing hardware company IQM Finland Oy. "This 5-qubit computer has relatively low computational power, and itâ(TM)s not enough to solve practical problems," Pursula said. The researchers plan to build a 50-qubit machine by 2024 that could be used for applications such as modeling viruses and drugs, and designing materials that today's technology is ill-equipped to handle. Read ...

Finland Battles 'Exceptional' Malware Attack Spread by Phones Published on November 30, 2021 at 07:38PM Finland is working to stop a flood of text messages of an unknown origin that are spreading malware. From a report: The messages with malicious links to malware called FluBot number in the millions, according to Aino-Maria Vayrynen, information security specialist at the National Cyber Security Centre. Telia Co AB, the country's second-biggest telecommunications operator, has intercepted some hundreds of thousands of messages. "The malware attack is extremely exceptional and very worrying," Teemu Makela, chief information security officer at Elisa Oyj, the largest telecoms operator, said by phone. "Considerable numbers of text messages are flying around." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Israel Authorizes Use of Phone Tracking Tech To Contain Spread of Omicron Covid Variant Published on November 30, 2021 at 06:30PM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Rights groups petitioned Israel's top court on Monday to repeal new COVID-19 measures that authorize the country's domestic intelligence service to use counter-terrorism phone tracking technology to contain the spread of the Omicron virus variant. Announcing the emergency measures on Saturday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the phone tracking would be used to locate carriers of the new and potentially more contagious variant in order to curb its transmission to others. Israeli rights groups say the emergency measures violate previous Supreme Court rulings over such surveillance, used on-and-off by the country's Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency since March, 2020. A senior health ministry official said on Sunday that use of phone tracking would be "surgical" in nature, only to ...

'Cyber Grinches' Snatching Toys Should Be Stopped, Lawmakers Say Published on November 30, 2021 at 03:30PM Lawmakers including Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chuck Schumer introduced a bill to crack down on "cyber Grinches" using bots to quickly snap up entire inventories of popular holiday toys and resell them at higher prices. Bloomberg reports: "This bill seeks to stop Cyber Grinch greed from ruining kids' holidays," Blumenthal says in a statement. "New tools are needed to block cyber scammers who snap up supplies of popular toys and resell them at astronomic prices. Price gouging hot toys by Grinch bots should have zero tolerance." The legislation, also introduced in the House of Representatives, would apply to e-commerce sites to ban bots from bypassing security measures on online retail portals. However, with Congress facing urgent deadlines to avoid a federal government shutdown and a debt limit default, it's unclear the bill will...

AMC, Sony Will Hand Out NFTs To 'Spider-Man' Advance Ticket Buyers Published on November 30, 2021 at 12:30PM AMC and Sony Pictures are giving away 86,000 NFTs to Stubs Premiere, A-List and Investor Connect members who buy or reserve tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home showings on December 16th. Engadget reports: Redeem a code through a special website and you'll get one of 100 designs available through the more eco-friendly Wax blockchain. You'll need to order your tickets through the AMC Theatres website or mobile app when pre-orders launch on November 29th. If you qualify, you'll get your code on December 22nd and will have until March 1st, 2022 to claim the NFT. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Airbus A340 Plane Lands On Antarctica For First Time Published on November 30, 2021 at 09:00AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from India Today: For the first time in history, a commercial Airbus plane made a successful landing on the white continent of Antarctica. One of the company's A340 planes touched down on an ice runway earlier this month, paving the way for more tourism on the frozen landmass. The A340 took off on the morning of November 2 from Cape Town, South Africa before flying 2,500 nautical miles (4,630 km) to Antarctica. It then achieved an aviation first by successfully landing on a runway made of "blue glacial ice," according to the aircraft's pilot, Captain Carlos Mirpuri. CNN reported that the historic flight was operated by Hi Fly, a boutique aviation company, and was chartered by Wolf's Gang luxury adventure camp. The aircraft will be used this season to fly a small number of tourists, alongside scientists and cargo to the icy continent....